Author tells of abuses

THE ROAD OF LOST INNOCENCE. By Somaly Mam, with Ruth Marshall. Spiegel & Grau. 190 pages. $22.95.

Somaly Mam still has nightmares about being locked in a cellar with snakes and about having buckets of maggots dumped on her. Even before she was sold into a brothel, she was raped by a village shopkeeper, by her husband and by doctors. But Mam escaped that life, and in 1996, she helped create a charity to help others get out.

In "The Road of Lost Innocence," Mam tells of girls being chained, beaten and tied to beds. Mam says she's seen girls in recent years who had nails driven into their skulls; they were still working.

In Cambodia, sex with virgins is believed to cure AIDS, impart strength and even lighten a man's skin color. Girls as young as 5 are sold and resold as virgins, sewn up between attacks so that each buyer brutalizes them anew.

There are inconsistencies in some of the details, but Mam's writing and her purpose are simple and direct.

Her agency has helped thousands in Southeast Asia, but prostitution remains a $500-million-a-year business in Cambodia. Mam wants the world to recognize what's going on, she wants people in her own country to understand that treating females this way isn't acceptable and she wants financial and international support so she can do more.